Financial Goal Setting

We all have dreams, but most of us continue dreaming, whereas some of us convert their dreams into reality. Why is it that some of us manage to make our dreams a reality and others find it difficult? Simple. We try to find reasons or excuses why our dreams are difficult to be met. This is where we kill our dream. Then when we ask how was another person able to achieve his dream and we find reasons for his / her success. What if I tell you we all can meet our dreams and achieve it, if we want? I’ll give you some simple steps:

• First for every dream determine what the preconditions are, write them down. Don’t judge if it can be achieved or not, just write it down.
• Next check if there are any financial needs attached to achieve the dream. Some easy dreams which involve finance are financial freedom, retirement, child education, marriage, and house.
• Now once you determine that financial needs are attached, let us try to make them measureable. Put a figure against each dream.
• This step becomes much easier, now we need to decide where we invest to meet our financial dreams. This is a very important step, as this will tell you how much time you have to achieve your dream. Every investment option has a risk attached as well as the return. So depending on your risk appetite, your timeframe gets determined. If you feel that the timeframe is too high and you want to give up, meet a practicing financial planner. He will determine your risk appetite and give you a better idea on how to achieve your dreams.
• The financial planner would also be able to do the categorizations of your dreams into short, medium and long term, depending on your current wealth and income. As depending on the category of your dream, your investment need to be done accordingly. The Planner would also do proper diversification of investments, taking into account you tax bracket as well. We often forget the tax angle, your investments should be tax efficient.

These simple steps and your financial goal is set. Let me tell you, once your financial goal is set, all your other reasons and excuses disappear and your dreams become more achievable.